If you have read Wittgenstein, you don't need to read Stanley Fish. Today I picked up one of his books of essays; I read only a couple of them until I realized I could just skim it. He writes very clearly, but spends entire essays to say things like:
"It is not that the presence of poetic qualities compels a certain kind of attention but that the paying of a certain kind of attention results in the emergence of poetic qualities."
"Indeed, these categories are the very shape of seeing itself, in that we are not to imagine a perceptual ground more basic than the one they afford."
"So, it would seem, finally, that there are no moves that are not moves in the game, and this includes even the move by which one claims no longer to be a player."
The examples go on endlessly. What I find so shocking is that in a 400-page book of this he never mentions Wittgenstein once. Not that this connection between them hasn't been made by others, but my first reading of Fish is a bit uncanny if he hasn't been dipping into Philosophical Investigations. I also find myself longing for Ludwig's direct and immediate prose.
4.21.2007
4.20.2007
"Art is a concrete and personal and rather childish thing after all-no matter what people do to graft it into science and make it sociological and psychological; it is no good at all unless it is let alone to be itself-a game of make-believe, of re-production, very exciting and delightful to people who have an ear for it or an eye for it." - Willa Cather
Agree or Disagree?
Agree or Disagree?
4.18.2007
4.17.2007
first lessons on collage poetry
I'm deep into my fourth collage poem now and I've begun to form some tenative principles about this approach to poem composing:
1) A collage is not automatically poetry, it is just as easily prose. I'm working with a novel right now and naturally the text is prose. Just because you cut up words and put them together does not make it instant poetry. Poetry still must be aimed at.
2) There are no excuses in this form. You shouldn't get by with weak lines. "the silent dead saints whistled for him" is a beginner's mistake. Grammar should count (even if not standard or standardized), capitalization should be significant (even if apparently random).
3) The mind must stay full open until the end. The poem begins to close up as it approaches its fulfillment--you want to keep that freedom open to the very end while sustaining the unity. You can feel that tightening grip in the prodigal son poem. It is very difficult (so far) to sustain a long poem, to keep frisky.
4a) Once you decide what you need in a certain slot then the game goes cold. It's just a forced march to the end. The worst thing you can do is get your heart set on an arrangement you do not yet have.
4b) When it devolves into a word hunt it is just like writing very slowly--and it misses the whole fun of the thing. Word hunting is when you start scanning pages for a particular word to fit a particular slot.
5) The best feeling is when new work is formed, not old work rehashed. You never want to play into the source text's style--you want to take over the language and make it fully your own. "whisky breeze" for example.
6) Syntatically ambigious pieces are very fine because they cross the breaks and bind the line. In the poem I am currently working on I have "her / hands put / up her / hair"--which is a really great structure because 'hands put' and 'up her' are syntatically ions, they have a charge, they need to bond with something. A weaker form is: "her hands / put up / her hair" In that line all the pieces stand-alone syntactically, they can attach with most anything; they are stable. When you get lines like the first one you feel a rush of adrenaline because you are entering into the chancy life of the poem. You are not ruling the poem, you are riding it.
7) Non-standard effects should appear free, improvisational but on reflection show a thick thoughtfulness. For example, in my first poem I have the line "please / Cinder / Angels" --a bit confusing, but if we imagine cinder angels (ashy, ember-like messengers of God?) we see the connection between it and "the Claws of Mercy" and also the "explosion of help". The phrase also may be calling for the cinder angels to come help, but audibly it's a prayer to God (please send her angels) referring to Maggie (please send Maggie's angels).
8) Collage poems are only restrictive when you try to play outside of the game. When you decide you need something that isn't there, you get frustrated. But who plays chess and gets upset when there isn't a piece on the board that doesn't exist? In all forms of art you have to submit yourself to the materials. Once you submit yourself to the process then you will feel more freedom than writing because you are composing what you never would've considered on your own.
9) Never get frustrated. If you get frustrated, you will sigh. If you sigh, your poem will be blown everywhere.
1) A collage is not automatically poetry, it is just as easily prose. I'm working with a novel right now and naturally the text is prose. Just because you cut up words and put them together does not make it instant poetry. Poetry still must be aimed at.
2) There are no excuses in this form. You shouldn't get by with weak lines. "the silent dead saints whistled for him" is a beginner's mistake. Grammar should count (even if not standard or standardized), capitalization should be significant (even if apparently random).
3) The mind must stay full open until the end. The poem begins to close up as it approaches its fulfillment--you want to keep that freedom open to the very end while sustaining the unity. You can feel that tightening grip in the prodigal son poem. It is very difficult (so far) to sustain a long poem, to keep frisky.
4a) Once you decide what you need in a certain slot then the game goes cold. It's just a forced march to the end. The worst thing you can do is get your heart set on an arrangement you do not yet have.
4b) When it devolves into a word hunt it is just like writing very slowly--and it misses the whole fun of the thing. Word hunting is when you start scanning pages for a particular word to fit a particular slot.
5) The best feeling is when new work is formed, not old work rehashed. You never want to play into the source text's style--you want to take over the language and make it fully your own. "whisky breeze" for example.
6) Syntatically ambigious pieces are very fine because they cross the breaks and bind the line. In the poem I am currently working on I have "her / hands put / up her / hair"--which is a really great structure because 'hands put' and 'up her' are syntatically ions, they have a charge, they need to bond with something. A weaker form is: "her hands / put up / her hair" In that line all the pieces stand-alone syntactically, they can attach with most anything; they are stable. When you get lines like the first one you feel a rush of adrenaline because you are entering into the chancy life of the poem. You are not ruling the poem, you are riding it.
7) Non-standard effects should appear free, improvisational but on reflection show a thick thoughtfulness. For example, in my first poem I have the line "please / Cinder / Angels" --a bit confusing, but if we imagine cinder angels (ashy, ember-like messengers of God?) we see the connection between it and "the Claws of Mercy" and also the "explosion of help". The phrase also may be calling for the cinder angels to come help, but audibly it's a prayer to God (please send her angels) referring to Maggie (please send Maggie's angels).
8) Collage poems are only restrictive when you try to play outside of the game. When you decide you need something that isn't there, you get frustrated. But who plays chess and gets upset when there isn't a piece on the board that doesn't exist? In all forms of art you have to submit yourself to the materials. Once you submit yourself to the process then you will feel more freedom than writing because you are composing what you never would've considered on your own.
9) Never get frustrated. If you get frustrated, you will sigh. If you sigh, your poem will be blown everywhere.
4.14.2007
4.13.2007
wazoo farm's first art show!
You've got to check it out! My favorites are Kurt Cole Eidsvig and Merry Winter Cockroft's Twombly-esque fantasies. (I have a work, too.)
4.12.2007
from William Coleman's "Saturday Night in the Tomb":
That's the God I believe in—the one
who can't wait to roll back the rock, leave nothing
behind, make an appearance everywhere,
yet who still loves these nights alone, the cool
darkness of His room, that sweet, solitary
music that keeps Him humming long after the dying's done.
That's the God I believe in—the one
who can't wait to roll back the rock, leave nothing
behind, make an appearance everywhere,
yet who still loves these nights alone, the cool
darkness of His room, that sweet, solitary
music that keeps Him humming long after the dying's done.
4.11.2007
wittgenstein and poets: so far, so wrong
In her book Wittgenstein's Ladder Marjorie Perloff discusses poets inspired by Wittgenstein--yet most of her examples are of poets who seem to hear W saying, "Don't walk into that pit!" and then, agreeing, walk into the pit.
Wittgenstein says, "Use is meaning." So a poet writes a poem where there is no use--which is exactly the activity that Wittgenstein is trying to get people to avoid.
In other cases Wittgenstein often asks a question that is meant to lead to an absurdity--but then a poet will take these questions seriously and imitate them. There are other glaring misinterpretations.
The strangeness of the ordinary that Perloff champions is actually Wittgenstein's attempt to show that if you try to make ordinary language theoretical then you are stupid--which is what Perloff wants to do.
Wittgenstein wanted to solve the problem of language 'going on holiday,' what these experimental poets specialize in. It's a strange kind of 'inspiration' when Wittgenstein says, "Here's a wall" and the inspired poets beat their heads against it in agreement.
Wittgenstein says, "Use is meaning." So a poet writes a poem where there is no use--which is exactly the activity that Wittgenstein is trying to get people to avoid.
In other cases Wittgenstein often asks a question that is meant to lead to an absurdity--but then a poet will take these questions seriously and imitate them. There are other glaring misinterpretations.
The strangeness of the ordinary that Perloff champions is actually Wittgenstein's attempt to show that if you try to make ordinary language theoretical then you are stupid--which is what Perloff wants to do.
Wittgenstein wanted to solve the problem of language 'going on holiday,' what these experimental poets specialize in. It's a strange kind of 'inspiration' when Wittgenstein says, "Here's a wall" and the inspired poets beat their heads against it in agreement.
4.10.2007
who best bear his mild yolk they serve him best
My memorizing friend Jordan wrote the entirety of a Milton sonnet, traditionally titled "On His Blindness," on an easter egg. Impressive! (If stretched the poem seems to fit an easter egg: And that one Talent which is death to hide / Lodged with me useless though my soul more bent / To serve therewith my Maker and present / my true account...)Chicken or Egg? "i got this idea from a lime tree growing acorns. some merlin prophecy."
4.09.2007
Big Luck (poem)
“We must wait for things to happen to us big, or occur to us big. We are sure to have some big luck if we wait long enough.” – Robert Frost
1.
If by chance,
This world remains
Improbable;
But if God be a gambler
Shooting craps upon
All possible tables at once—
Big luck comes smiling down
Hips wide bearing
Life and sentience,
Saying, in my house
The house always wins.
For this we praise…
2.
Big luck, Mary!
The Angel said.
You could be a—
You’ve been entered into—
Show her what she’s—
One never quite believes
Not for lack of proof
But because it’s you.
Most grace then
Disposed of in heaps
Is got by thieves.
Remember me when…
3.
Prayer is not
For grace for grace is
In the cards
But prayer wants a deal
From mid-deck--
The old woman seizing
On a wicked king.
Or else faith must
Bluff a kind of praise
When grace won’t come
The widow’s mite:
A going all in.
4.
Given a hand
Full of dice, an endless
Number of rolls
You’re bound to win.
The severed love,
The founder of words,
Our lesser neglections,
Could be revised
If only time:
Lord, if you had been here--
What do you think
Resurrection’s for?
5.
Heaven is
Inevitable in some universe.
Happy to know that even if
It’s hell for us
It’s better for someone else.
Har—harleluia,
I cannot bear
Trans-universal jealousy—not
Knowing what the next world
Is doing nor even
Mild envy for a close friend.
Just one peek I beg…
6.
Seventy-times-seven
Is simply better odds.
“On the just
and unjust” means
God never busts.
And soon you learn
The point is not to win
But to never go out;
The Kingdom
Is never going broke
On hope for
The big luck.
1.
If by chance,
This world remains
Improbable;
But if God be a gambler
Shooting craps upon
All possible tables at once—
Big luck comes smiling down
Hips wide bearing
Life and sentience,
Saying, in my house
The house always wins.
For this we praise…
2.
Big luck, Mary!
The Angel said.
You could be a—
You’ve been entered into—
Show her what she’s—
One never quite believes
Not for lack of proof
But because it’s you.
Most grace then
Disposed of in heaps
Is got by thieves.
Remember me when…
3.
Prayer is not
For grace for grace is
In the cards
But prayer wants a deal
From mid-deck--
The old woman seizing
On a wicked king.
Or else faith must
Bluff a kind of praise
When grace won’t come
The widow’s mite:
A going all in.
4.
Given a hand
Full of dice, an endless
Number of rolls
You’re bound to win.
The severed love,
The founder of words,
Our lesser neglections,
Could be revised
If only time:
Lord, if you had been here--
What do you think
Resurrection’s for?
5.
Heaven is
Inevitable in some universe.
Happy to know that even if
It’s hell for us
It’s better for someone else.
Har—harleluia,
I cannot bear
Trans-universal jealousy—not
Knowing what the next world
Is doing nor even
Mild envy for a close friend.
Just one peek I beg…
6.
Seventy-times-seven
Is simply better odds.
“On the just
and unjust” means
God never busts.
And soon you learn
The point is not to win
But to never go out;
The Kingdom
Is never going broke
On hope for
The big luck.
4.08.2007
"under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs"
I've been accepted to the Writing MFA program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and I've decided to go for it. I visited this past week and feel that it fits my eclectic interests well--no one will be asking, "So, why exactly are you making sonnets out of cut-up science textbooks?" etc.. (Well, they might ask that...but not in a "waste of your time" tone of voice.)Unoriginal personal reflection: When I look back at all that's happened in the past two years, and where I'm headed in the next few, I can barely believe in so much adventure. If things had gone 'as planned' I would've likely been getting married and had my course set on an English degree and on to teaching. But who can tell what happens next? Not even the show knows: the actors are making up lines, the sets move mid-scene, the director has thrown out the script.
I wish that I was done changing but it appears I'm in for it. Though there will be more responsibilities than I've ever had to juggle, I'm starting to feel happy again--like coming back to life. Salvation, salivation.
*The shimmering light on the museum is sunlight reflected off a building across the street.
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